Tom's blog

Catching up with Greg Norman wines

When speaking of Greg Norman, it's hard to pinpoint one achievement. As a golfer, he won two British Open Championships and stood atop the list of best golfers for 331 weeks, eventually replaced by Tiger Woods. He's designed more than 100 golf courses and owns 14 businesses. 

He's also established a successful wine business that despite the competition remains a household name. Today I caught up with the wines and with his daughter, Morgan, a full-time resident of Jupiter, Fl. who helps to market the wines and was instrumental in much of the label design.

Morgan and her father have residences on Florida's East Coast and were in Naples for their annual QBE Shootout that this year will raise money for children's cancer. You can't speak of golf without speaking of wine because Norman often sees the two together. His business pattern is to first establish a golfing center in areas where the demographics are good, then introduce his wines to the market. If you recognize the name in golf, you will recognize it on a wine label too. Very smart.

Norman instructs his wine team to make a wine that can be enjoyed with food and is reasonably priced so that most people can afford to buy it. Across the board, the wines are approachable and well priced at around $15. These are wines that aren't over-oaked or over-extracted like so many other wines.

Morgan says that her father has resisted the trend to make fruit bombs, much like many of the Australian shirazes that have flooded the U.S. market. And now the market is coming back in the direction of his style of making a more balanced, less alcoholic wine. 

I'll be writing a column about these wines in the next several weeks. Meanwhile, I highly recommend you try the 2015 Greg Norman Paso Robles Cabernet Sauvignon, 2015 Santa Barbara Pinot Noir and the 2016 Eden Valley Chardonnay.  All of them are priced under $15.